Mirva Koivukangas studied pedagogy, drama education and stage directing. She has been employed as an actor, assistant director and director with theatre companies around Finland. From 2009, she was a director’s and producer’s assistant variously at the Finnish National Opera and Ballet, at the Savonlinna Opera Festival and at the Sibelius Academy of Uniarts Helsinki. She is currently a producer at the Turku Music Festival.

She made her début as an opera director with Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the Rijeka Opera House in Croatia in 2018 and with Poulenc’s La voice humaine at the Sibelius Academy in 2019. Her most recent production was Kokkonen’s The Last Temptations at the Jyväskylä Opera, premiered around New Year 2022.

Mirva Koivukangas is also a librettist. She has provided the libretti for the operas Pyhä Birgitta [St Brigit] (premiered in autumn 2018), Räddningsväg – Pelastustie [Road to Salvation] and Tove J. The latter two will be premiered in autumn 2022.